Pokemon battle
by Birdboy
Summary: A chance encounter on route 15. Two trainers, three pokemon each: let the battle begin!


The brown-haired teenage girl was clad in a white sailor suit top with light blue trim, along with a pleated skirt that struggled to reach the knees and tall socks of an identical shade – a shade that might be compared to that of the sky, were the sky not red and orange with the setting sun. In another Kanto, the outfit might have marked her as a schoolgirl, but in this world where most left school at age ten, in a world where that skirt came with a brown belt and an assortment of six great, ultra, safari, and pokeballs attached, it marked her with the descriptor of lass.

After taking one last look at Fuchsia City, she turned around and began walking the long road towards Lavender Town, moving along the reddened dirt trail that the small signpost had marked as Route 15. A few minutes later, she spotted a tall figure in a patch of grass to the side of the path, clad in a black cloak and hood which obscured even his facial features – she thought it was a he, anyway, if only from the figures tall height and a shape which appeared somewhat more masculine than not. Three great balls, two ultra balls, and one pokeball hung along its waistband – if a belt held them in place, the lighting was too poor for her to see it.

At the trainer's appearance, an exclamation point went on in her head, and the lass slowly approached the dark figure, her starter's pokeball in hand.

"Don't underestimate me just because I'm a lass."

"I shall teach you the powers of darkness." The black figure pressed a button on its great ball, its blue and white exterior quadrupling in size. The exchange of words was meaningless tradition: most trainers spoke of their days or made random statements, but for two confident young trainers, these boasts were far more suitable. The question "want to battle?" crossed neither trainer's lips, but the mutual desire was understood – besides, it was simply what was done when trainers passed one another on the road, even if their pokemon were badly wounded and they had no hope of winning or desire to fight.

The two stared at each other, the lass's blue eyes against the dark figure's black, their stares like a bolt of electricity crackling through the air.

"Three pokemon each." The lass stated confidently, and the dark figure nodded, its hood slipping slightly to reveal a bang of black hair, then adjusted back into place.

"Porygon-Z, go!"

"Umbreon, come out!"

The two faced each other silently as they hurled their balls into the tall grass – the arena – glances of contempt passing across their faces, almost as if to say "spoiled rich bitch" and "goth eeveelution freak."

White lights emerged from the pokeball and great ball, materializing and gaining color until a dark canine(or perhaps vulpine) figure with strange yellow circles on its body faced a pink and blue computer program with a duck like face and thin, club like limbs which levitated above the grass, a few tall blades scraping its tail – or was it a leg?

"Porygon-Z, attack with signal beam!" The lass commanded, her yell as much excited as for the sake of hearing as she pointed to its target.

"Umbreon, faint attack." The dark trainer said calmly, counting on the pokemon's twitching ears to pick up the order; it was best left unheard amidst the rustling breezes and howls of the wilderness, along with the electronic screech of the porygon-z's green and red beam. The umbreon disappeared into the grass and phased back into view as it slammed into the cybernetic pokemon's rounded center.

"That would've been a solid move, were I shooting at your umbreon." The lass stated, pointing into the air above the two pokemon as the dark figure took note of a twisted, helix-like beam spiraling into the orange sky.

"This isn't a contest battle." The figure said in a surprisingly feminine voice, albeit one still dripping with contempt.

"I know. Don't worry about me. Porygon-Z, trick room!"

"Umbreon, secret power."

The patch of grass began to warp, spinning the ground upside-down and sending the trainers falling into the sky, standing on what looked to be surprisingly non-burning rays of sunlight, while the pokemon took clouds as their platforms. The helix multiplied as the room spun, then struck the umbreon with a fierce beam of green and red evolution, its golden rings glowing in multicolored, Christmas pain. The umbreon let out a howl which shattered the clouds and left them floating on air, using the room's strange nature to fire a beam of green zeros and ones through the porygon-z's target like eye.

"Finish it with dark pulse."

"Porygon-Z," the lass began, then paused for a split-second to think. Conversion wouldn't do anything, because cybernetic attacks were normal in type. And without its optical sensors, most of its own attacks were useless, but if there was just that one move...

The black void had already begun to ripple out through the room. As it approached the floating, hacked porygon form, the lass screamed "Recover!, and the pokemon began to rewrite its data to patch up the damage.

It was too late. When the attack struck, the porygon-z lay floating on a cloud, too wounded to battle further. The lass daintily walked over along the sun's ray, casting a laughing glance at the grass above picked up her pokeball, and recalled her fainted pokemon in a beam of red light.

"Pidgeot can handle this. Come out!" She yelled while giving her pokeball an underhand toss upwards, and a large bird with long, flowing red and gold feathers which emulated hair emerged into the sky – below the grass, above the clouds.

The cloaked figure laughed. "How mundane."

The Lass shook her head. "There's nothing mundane about a porygon-Z or a pidgeot or a kangaskhan or any other normal type. They _have_ to be interesting, because they don't have their little eevee powers to fall back on."

The cloaked figure cracked a light smile, her eyes softening. "I'd like to see an interesting battle. Show me what your pidgeot can do, if it lasts that long – Umbreon, black cry!" The umbreon let out a piercing scream which traveled not as an invisible sound wave, but as one which shot darkness with its call.

"Pidgeot, sonic boom!" The order reached her pokemon's ears before the umbreon's cry, and it dove furiously over the dark-type's head at twice the speed of sound. Below the bird, the air drowned out the umbreon's voice with a loud, explosive sound which wounded its ears.

"Nice dodge, but it didn't do that much damage." The cloaked figure commented.

"Finish it with a quick attack!" The lass shouted, and the bird flapped its wings furiously, turned around, and slammed into the fox like creature at a pace almost too fast to be seen. The pidgeot returned to its trainer's side and regained altitude, but the black pokemon was left in a crumpled heap at the edge of a cloud.

The hooded figure walked along a ray of sunlight to pick up her great ball, staring up at the grass and making note of the rounds left until the trick room would expire, then recalled her umbreon. "You deserve a nice, long rest. Go, Tyranitar!"

The cloaked figure hurled an ultra ball onto the cloud, and as a figure emerged from its interior, the dirt covering the grass above them loosened, its color and consistency shifting to that of sand as a sharp wind whipped it down to fill the air. Shielding her eyes from the sandstorm, the lass made out a green, rocky carnosaur standing two meters tall at the storm's center. "So you're a villain, not an eevee freak."

Her opponent nodded. "Tyranitar, focus punch!"

As the tyranitar's clawed drill of an arm began to glow red, the lass pondered, but only for a moment. Of her pidgeot's attacks, only steel wing would be of any use, and its small relative size would make even that all but worthless. Perhaps it'd help in fighting her opponent's third pokemon, if she made it that far. Thinking this, she held out her pokeball, sent a beam of red light her pidgeot's way and hurled an ultra ball onto the battlefield. "Pidgeot, return! And I don't mean the attack! Goooo, Snorlax!"

A dark blue, tan-bellied beast, with a vaguely ursine face and a thick, almost cetacean layer of fat emerged from its pokeball, a beast which stood slightly larger and far wider than the tyranitar emerged into the arena.

"That was pretty clever of you. Too bad I have a pokemon even faster in this room than yours! Snorlax, earthquake!" The lass shouted, punching forward as the half-ton pokemon jumped, creating a tremor which shook the clouds, jumping through the sky to shake the other cloud and crack the dinosaur's thick feet. While the storm slammed into the thick mammal for a tiny bit of damage, the drill arm returned to its standard, light green color, and with the attack's focus broken, it fizzled out.

"Tyranitar, brick break."

"Snorlax, counter."

"Stand down!" The dark trainer shouted, but the rocky beast had already begun charging forward, too focused on its enormous enemy to listen to its trainer's command as it slammed into it with a force strong enough to smash boulders. The blubber expanded around the tyranitar's drill arm, then bounced it back, slamming the rock-type's arm into its own crested head, felling it with that blow as the room spun around once again, returning to a patch of tall grass by the side of Route 15 distinguished only by the sandstorm which raged even with its creator knocked out.

After walking over to retrieve her pokemon's ultra ball and return it to its confines, than back the cloaked figure flipped her hood over her head, revealing her feminine face and dark eyes as long, jet black locks cascaded down her back.

"You're a skilled trainer. I don't like to reveal this to my opponent, but I like losing even less." The young woman stated as sand whipped behind her, holding up a pokeball – a pokeball! - and releasing it into the room. "Moltres, arise!"

No dramatic music played as an enormous fireball emerged from the red and white sphere, then pulsed out in every direction with a flap of wings from the long-beaked, enormous yellow bird at its center; the only sound was a long, nostalgic avian cry. Although equal to the snorlax was in height, its wingspan made the fire bird three times as wide. It was all the lass could do to stare in awe as the moltres sent a wave of heat towards her and her snorlax, slightly charring them both – awe directed not only at the godlike pokemon, but at the beautiful darkness specialist who had captured one – and in a pokeball of all things at that!

As her Snorlax staggered, the lass shook her head, snapping out of her admiration. Moltres were called legendary for a reason, but that reason had as much to do with their rarity as their strength: according to the stories, a snorlax even this wounded might nonetheless be able to take one, and her Pidgeot could fly rings around it and maybe even deal the finishing blow.

And if she pulled it off, she too would become a legend.

"Snorlax, body slam!"

"Moltres, scorching wing!"

The two pokemon charged one another, one running with a speed surprisingly fast for its bulk, as though the fat disguised an enormous layer of muscle, the other flying low to the ground, setting the grass aflame. The moltres shifted at the last moment, whacking the snorlax not with its whole body, but only a fiery wing, a wing which caught the full force of the beast's bulk and was fast rendered unusable.

The snorlax, for its part, had a long, wing-shaped burn mark across its stomach, and was set aflame from the attack.

"Snorlax, rest!"

"Moltres, we have no choice! Hyper beam!" The black-clad woman shouted with an enthusiasm which equaled the lass. The Moltres opened its Seussian mouth, its long beak awkwardly high as it let out a thick, bright orange beam. The snorlax lay down to rest, but was engulfed before it could use even its fast healing abilities, and its x-shaped eyes betrayed its condition: it was knocked out, not asleep.

"Snorlax, you did well!" The Lass yelled after picking up her pokeball, then kissed it before returning it to the notch on her belt. "Here's hoping you did enough – hoping speed matters more than power. Pidgeot, take down that flaming chicken!"

After re-emerging, the Pidgeot turned its head and looked quizzically at its trainer. Her opponent laughed.

"Right, you don't know take down. Umm... use that speed to your full advantage and hit it with a hurricane!" The pidgeot circled the crippled moltres, another piercing sonic boom annoying the moltres' internal, feather-covered ear as enormous gusts trapped it in its wake, the winds whipping painfully at its limbs, stretching it in every direction.

"You fought well, lass, but you were just overpowered. Moltres, fill the hurricane with fire!" The woman screamed with absolute, hotblooded confidence, certain she'd win if only her moltres could hear her through the attack.

"Pidgeot, get the heck out of there!" The lass shouted nervously, wracking her brain for another strategy; the power differential was simply too much, and she knew her pidgeot was too fragile to survive such a devastating attack.

The pidgeot quickly zoomed out of the hurricane, leaving the immobilized moltres at the center of the fiery vortex which, in the absence of the smaller bird's energy, slowly began to melt away.

"Pidgeot, mirror move!" The pidgeot opened its beak and shot a cone of fire at the moltres, using its superb imitation techniques to spit an enormous cone of fire back at the fire bird. Although pokemon of a different element would have been hurt more – far more – the paralyzed moltres' head was visibly charred by the enormous fire attack. It was a fire bird, not a phoenix: a moltres, not a ho-oh.

"Moltres, flamethrower!" The dark trainer shouted. Another jet of fire came shooting from the lame legendary's beak, but the pidgeot was too fast and too far away: the attack was easily dodged.

"Pidgeot, air slash." The lass said, barely containing her excitement as the pidgeot flapped its tan wings to shoot a ball of wind at the larger bird, a ball which collided head-on with its long neck. Two wild, futile flamethrowers and spot-on air slashes later, the Moltres' head fell to the ground as its trainer returned it to its pokeball in shock.

The lass leaped for joy, held up her right index and middle fingers to form a 'V' sign for victory, then ran over to throw her arms around her victorious pidgeot. "We did it! We actually did it! We took down a legendary!" After a few minutes celebrating, she noticed the look of dismay on her defeated opponent's face, recalled her pidgeot, and ran over to shake hands.

"You fought well. If that Snorlax hadn't taken out your Moltres' wing."

"That wasn't luck; I used the wrong attack. Guess I got too caught up in its power to remember that even the strong need strategy..." the darkness trainer moved, trailing off, looking into space at something far beyond the horizon, beyond what the lass could see. "It's nice to lose once in a while; it reminds me that there's something left to train for. Thanks." She pulled out 10000 yen from her pocket, an enormous reward for her victory.

Their battle completed, the two walked together back to the pokemon center, exchanged phone numbers, then parted ways, each searching for another battle with a worthy foe, another battle worthy of remembrance.

* * *

Author's Notes:

I know pidgeot can't learn sonic boom. As far as I'm concerned, however, anything that flies at twice the speed of sound (as per pidgeot's pokedex entry) SHOULD be able to use sonic boom. It just makes sense.

Many attacks used do not actually work that way.

If you haven't heard of an attack I had used, I took it from the TCG.


End file.
